Not just pasties: Inflation will remain too high for comfort March 28, 2012 FOR a Prime Minister whose only private sector job was working in public relations, it is astonishing how bad his government’s communications skills have become. From implausible anecdotes about their pasty eating habits to panic-mongering about petrol shortages, David Cameron, George Osborne and Francis Maude, the cabinet office minister, have been blundering as if there [...]
Tokyo is vast, fast and very interesting May 27, 2012 IT was about 7AM and the sun from my windows was beginning to wake me up. With my room on the 35th floor of a tower in the business district of Tokyo, the view of the endless city was so intense that drawing my curtains – even while I slept – seemed a waste. I [...]
Cameron needs to refocus his efforts February 20, 2012 THE reformist credentials of this government are looking increasingly shaky. The only area where real change is taking place is education: Michael Gove, the secretary of state, and his uber-competent team, are pushing through a revolution, liberating state schools from local authority control, allowing new schools to be set up by outsiders, improving standards and [...]
Cameron needs to refocus his efforts February 20, 2012 THE reformist credentials of this government are looking increasingly shaky. The only area where real change is taking place is education: Michael Gove, the secretary of state, and his uber-competent team, are pushing through a revolution, liberating state schools from local authority control, allowing new schools to be set up by outsiders, improving standards and [...]
World’s largest exporter suffering from contraction in global demand October 18, 2011 WHILE China’s 9.1 per cent growth recorded for the third quarter of the year may have disappointed analysts — with some still questioning the reliability of the government’s uber-fast estimates — it is little surprise that the world’s largest exporter is facing a hit from the global economic slowdown. The third quarter involved two months [...]
GOLD – IT’S NOT INDESTRUCTIBLE September 26, 2011 Q.DOESN’T GOLD RALLY DURING ECONOMIC TURMOIL? A.Not always. Investors often flee from all their positions, and in this case have largely turned to the US dollar as the most liquid option. Q.BUT WHY HAS IT BEEN HIT SO HARD? A.There are several possible factors, with gold likely being affected by a combination. Losses on equities [...]
Sleeping tight in NYC January 15, 2012 NOBODY needs an excuse to go to New York; the Big Apple is one of the few cities in the world to match London for sheer breadth of sights to see, entertainment to sample and scenes to explore. But the opening of a sprinkling of new high-class hotels that demand to be visited is as [...]
Sleeping tight in NYC January 15, 2012 NOBODY needs an excuse to go to New York; the Big Apple is one of the few cities in the world to match London for sheer breadth of sights to see, entertainment to sample and scenes to explore. But the opening of a sprinkling of new high-class hotels that demand to be visited is as [...]
CONFERENCE WHISPERS October 4, 2011 The cat(s) that got the cream Cats abound at this year’s Tory conference. First Theresa May, the home secretary, used her speech to claim that a convicted Bolivian illegal immigrant had been allowed to stay in Britain because he owned a British pet cat. The delegates lapped up this tale of human rights madness, but [...]
Pocket watch: the next generation September 14, 2011 THOUGHT the pocket watch was a gadget relegated to history? Think again. Of late two of the most cutting edge Swiss watch companies have announced new pieces designed to be worn on a chain rather than on the wrist. The first, by Urwerk (www.urwerk.com), a brand that specialises in futuristic timepieces that bear only the [...]